Here's my studio. I haven't cleaned it or made it look pretty. This is it's normal state. It's small, cramped, and I have WAY too much stuff in such a small space, but it works OK for now.

So here they are, the studio photos:

Here's my Blacet modular synth kit (right) and my Octave Kitten (left). You can read more about the trials and tribulations of building the kit here.

Lots of stuff in this picture (as there will be in most of these...).
Tama Techstar TS-305 (mid-left).
Rack of MIDI synths (center) includes a MOTU MIDI Express XT, Kawai XD-5r, Yamaha TX-81z, Ensoniq ESQ-M.
Speaker (top middle) is 1/2 of my pair of KRK Rockit 8 bi-amped monitors.
Mixer (right) is a Tascam M-2400 24-channel, 8-buss console.
There's more, but you get the point.

Many hours spent from this angle...

Whole bunch of crap. Red yamaha keytar (center) is the SHS-10. The thing to have if you want to look retarded on stage. In a good way...
Also, a big stack of Casio and Yamaha toy keyboards just to the right of it. There are actually quite a few more there than it looks like. That stack is layers deep.

The Kitten (left) would be up on one of the shelves, ready to play, but I still haven't tuned it, so it's more or less unplayable right now. The scaling is so far off that there's nearly an octave between keys. Yikes!
Also of note is the Casio CZ-101 (top right, like you can't tell...). Great for dorky and obscene sounds. Also: some old video effects gear for making strange images.

Just to the right of the main effects rack, I've also got some Boss half-rack effects. I've got two RSD-10 and one RPD-10. The RSD is a "sampling" delay, which has a keyboard/pitch input for controlling the sampling/playback rate of the delay and sampling modes. Really, really bizzare things are possible with these. I should buy some more of them The RPD is a simple mono to stereo panning/ping-ping delay. A nice effect, but nothing too special.

My other monitor, an old camcorder, and my really old Sony Discman. I've had that thing for over 10 years, and it's still a great CD player. One of the few portables to have a real line out (separate from the headphone out).

Some of the pile of old toy keyboards. In various states of bending and modification. Fun stuff.

Two Wavetek oscillators on the left, one Heathkit oscillator/sweep generator on the right. Above the Heathkit is an old DOD digital delay (with a bad memory chip.. BOOOOOO) and above that is an Aphex Aural Exciter (YAAAYYYYY!!). Oh, and an Alesis Micro Gate.
Down below is the Alesis Micron, which still amazes me. Great, great analog modeling. Better than you might think. Normally the Octave Kitten sits there, but it's in dry dock. On top of the Micron is a Guyatone Parametric EQ pedal (which is very nice) and a Boss Hyper Metal distortion pedal.
Blocked by the chair, sitting to the right of the Micron is a borrowed 1st generation Frostwave Resonator. Unfortunately, this is the no-CV inputs model. I'll eventually have to give it back, and just build my own MS-20 clone (yessssss).

More crap. Computer parts, snakes for the mixer, and (low center) an open Roland TR-505 drum machine, just waiting for bending. Under and behind the 505 are a whole bunch of microphones in boxes. Yes, one day I'll have a proper studio where I can set up microphones to record bands. One day....

Kind of odd to see a ceiling fan so low, right? Well I'm up in the loft, and there's about a 15-foot drop below that fan.
Handheld cassete recorder (mid-left) provided much fun back in the day. Adjustable speed, oh yeah.
Also: computer parts, etc. And some TI Speak & _____.

I think I've covered all of this stuff. Oh, those little guys in the upper left have magnetic feet. Adorable. Deadly.

Slightly different angle, showing where I'd be if I weren't holding the camera. It's all at my fingertips...

More of the same... you can at least see the Frostwave Resonator in this shot.

An angle you don't often see. This is me headed down the stairs, out of the lair. The end!

Man, what a mess!Last edited by bigtex on Mon Sep 01, 2008 3:05 am; edited 1 time in total

In fact, how about anybody that replies to this add some pictures of their studio... no matter how small or nonexistant your studio may be. If it's just a laptop and headphones, post that! If it's a massive wall of modular, definitely post that! I just like to know what other people are working with.

Such wonderful keyboards. Oh, and a keyboard stand.... what a brilliant concept. I could sure use one of those.. but where would I put it ?? Dual LCD monitors is nice, too.

I especially like your chair. I've never seen one like that, though I've often thought it would make sense to have indentations for the legs like that. Looks very comfortable. Plus, it matches the Nord gear!

Wan wrote:

If anyone has some suggestions to make it fit in i will appreciate that very much

I especially like your chair. I've never seen one like that, though I've often thought it would make sense to have indentations for the legs like that. Looks very comfortable. Plus, it matches the Nord gear!

It has taken me a while to find such a chair, and this one didn't come cheap alas. But now i have found it, it *is* a very fine chair and the most used thing in the room.

I think i can't do that to you. If you've get those synths you wouldn't fit in your own studio and wouldn't be able to play with your stuff anymore. I know you would slowly pass out of this world and that's something i don't want to be responsible for.
So i will look for another solution to my severe problem. I think i can learn something from your setup: don't make it to tidy and more stuff will fit in _________________Grtz Wan

I've got that same Zoom 1201. Even though some of its effects are really noisy, I love that thing. The ring-mod with delay is quite nice, as is the pitch shifter with delay. Perhaps one of my favorites is one of the middle settings on the Lo-fi effect that has a delay added in. Okay, I guess all of my favorite effects on it involve delay...

Also, open up your Ibanez 1100. I used to have an Ibanez 1000, so I'm sure yours is similar. There should be some trimpots inside for the max and min delay times. Tweak those! You can get the delay time so short it becomes almost like a phaser, and also so long that it basically stops. Then, put it into modulation mode! I usually keep mine set with the sampling frequency somewhere in the high-audio range, so you can hear the ringing, but it still works reasonably well as a delay. The DAC filters were not intended to filter out such low (audible) frequencies, so you can hear all of the digital destruction. Nice. Another cool mod you can do to that is taking the output of the input amplifier and piping it to the input of the delay time control. The input signal's amplitude will modulate delay time. Wicked sound!

Thank you for asking. I built this synth in the 1970s and it is near and dear to my heart. Here is some info about the green buttons on the upper left corner of the Aries Control panel.

When I decided to increase the number of VCO's and Filters, it occurred to me that I'd need a load of patch cords just to do basic patching from the keyboards, etc... to the modules. I didn't want to loose patching flexibility by hard-wiring connections yet I wanted a convenient way to route control voltages.

The first six columns are 'a' thru 'f' and are fed from patch points that are normalled as follows:

Column 'h' is for routing signals to the PWM inputs of the oscillators.

Columns i and j are for routing Gate and Trigger signals to the six envelope generators.

All the connections appear at patch points and can be over-ridden. Also, all inputs are summed -- thus, multiple columns can supply control voltage to each module. I added diodes to the inputs of my envelope generators to prevent back-feeding -- thus, I can trigger the EG's from multiple sources.

The switches light up when pushed for easy reference.

As you probably figured out, the Aries modules are all of uniform size -- the patch switches and additional mixers, inverters, and attenuators are on a panel that I built myself.

The outputs and controls for the MIDI to CV converter are in the middle/bottom of the panel and can be patched to the columns via the jack overrides.

The synthesizer's minimal "Normalled" patching can be over-ridden by placing a plug into a jack (like an Arp 2600) -- the goal being maximum flexibility.

I am relatively new to this site, and can't wait to check out the modular synth forums where I plan to find lots of new ideas for patching.

For more information about this synth and some .mp3 performances, please visit http://kevinkissinger.com and follow the "Synthesizer" link.

Well... since this is supposed to be a "picture" thread I'll stop here.

Well... since this is supposed to be a "picture" thread I'll stop here.

Oh, please continue This is fascinating stuff. Perhaps you should start a thread for showing off your studio and how everything works. You've got some cool equipment. I've been meaning to try out or hear one of those Casio VZ synths for a while now. I've read that they can make some amazing sounds. I'm a big fan of the Kurzweil synths and the VAST engine. Also great. Nice studio!

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